


The Amazing Marauders

by Stasia



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Marauders, Superheros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-02
Updated: 2014-01-02
Packaged: 2018-01-07 03:48:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1115121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stasia/pseuds/Stasia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One of them has a big secret and it ends up affecting everything they hold dear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Amazing Marauders

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ellid (Ellidfics)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellidfics/gifts).



> This was written for a holiday fest in 2012 as a gift for Ellid, who'd asked for: 
> 
> Remus and Severus are an established couple, living a quiet life...until one begins to suspect that the other is living a secret life as the mysterious costumed crimefighter known as ??? Would LOVE to have this crossover somehow with the Marvel universe, especially either the Avengers or one of the British heroes like Captain Britain or Spitfire, but anything will do. 
> 
> I enjoyed working the two fandoms together as best I could.

Severus sighed and leaned forward again, pressing his eyes to the microscope's eyepieces. He'd been here for three hours and nothing had changed. This was the fourth iteration of this test and he just wasn't getting the results he needed.

Still nothing. Most of the damned protists just sat there, reproducing happily, without any sign they were drifting through what should have been an incredibly poisonous solution. The rest were behaving oddly. They were moving slowly and aimlessly, and when they bumped into something they just stopped moving instead of wiggling off in another direction. What none of the organisms were doing was dying, however.

"Fuck," he said, pushing his chair away from the table. Behind him, he heard a chuckle. 

"Microbes not cooperating?" 

Severus stood and bent backwards, fists in his lower back, stretching and twisting. "Nothing doing," he said, walking to his lab partner's desk. "How about yours, Evan?"

Rosier laughed. "There's a bit of progress, but nothing striking. I'll put it up on the screen for you." He touched a button and they turned to look at the large electronic screen on the wall. It showed a section of petri dish with clusters of small pink cylindrical shapes bouncing around each other. A few of them were less active and there were clusters of some which were an odd greyish blue instead of pink. 

Severus stepped forward. "What's going on with the blue ones?"

Rosier shrugged. "Dunno. I've got the same strain you do, but I think I'm working on TS:845."

Severus glanced at the glass jar next to his scope. "I've got TS:883. I wonder what's making yours change." He looked through his scope's eyepieces again and shook his head. "I'm calling this one. Whatever it is, it's not what we're looking for." He pressed the button on his scope and the image on the screen changed. Now it showed the dish of microbes he'd been studying. More of his microbes were wandering aimlessly in the dish.

"Are you coming to the Section party?" Rosier asked, watching Severus closely. 

Severus, busy sealing the petri dish and marking it for rejection - and eventual disposal - didn't look over. "No, I'm going home. Remus was out of town - " 

"Yes," muttered Rosier, not quite under his breath, "you might have mentioned that."

Severus, shoving his scope back into its storage space, grinned. "I might have done, yes. Anyway, he's home now, so I'm for home myself. See you Monday?" At Rosier's nod, he waved and shoved through the door. Behind him, Rosier's eyes narrowed and he stared at the now-frozen image of Severus' protists still on the screen. 

"TS:883, huh? That's interesting," he murmurred, picking up the jar of test solution from the Rejects Box. With a glance at the door, he dropped it into his pocket.

* * *

Severus pulled in a deep breath as he opened the door to the flat he and Remus shared. The air was filled with the rich scent of lamb stew, and he smiled. Remus had missed him as well - lamb stew was Severus' favorite. 

"Honey, I'm home," he called, dropping his satchel on the table and following his nose to the kitchen. Once there, he started chuckling. Remus was at the stove, wooden spoon in hand, wearing nothing but a ridiculous ruffled half-apron in an retina-burning shade of yellow. He'd turned at Severus' call, and was standing, spoon extended like a weapon, grinning from ear to ear.

"You sexist. How dare you call me 'honey' in that patronizing tone?" The effect of his naked, furred chest and strong legs on either side of the ruffled yellow apron was striking. 

Severus covered his smile with his hand, but he knew he couldn't hide his laugh. He stepped close and wrapped an arm around Remus, enjoying the way his warm skin felt under his hand. "Give us a kiss," he said.

That night, after an enthusiastic reacquaintance, they lay in bed, legs tangled together. Severus snuggled his head deeper into the hollow where Remus' shoulder met his neck. He wrapped his arm around Remus' chest, pulling him in closer, and sighed. 

"I missed you." He slowly stroked up and down on Remus' side, following the familiar curves of Remus' ribs and muscles. He reached a little further around and his fingertips caught on something unexpected - it almost felt like a welt or scar. He stiffened and tried to reach the unfamiliar spot again, but Remus slid his own hand along Severus' thighs and over his hip and he shivered, entirely distracted. 

"I'm ready to say hello again," Remus growled into Severus' ear. "How about you?"

In the following rush of pleasure, Severus forgot all about the strange mark on Remus' side.

The next morning, over breakfast, Remus said, "I should be home for a couple of weeks. Can you take any time right now?" He shifted his chair a little closer to Severus, but Severus knew that this move was mainly so Remus could watch the morning news report while eating. They had a little telly on the counter - it had been the subject of some of their earliest fights. Severus had resisted the idea of having a TV in the house at all, whilst Remus, who'd grown up with one in both the lounge and the kitchen, had originally wanted to have three: one in the lounge, one in the kitchen and one in their bedroom. They'd finally compromised on a big one with all the mod cons in the lounge and a small screen in the kitchen. Severus usually left it off - he'd managed to misplace the remote for it on one of Remus' longer trips, which had made Remus spend two weeks researching universal remotes when he got home. 

Severus swallowed the last of his coffee and thought for a minute. "I might be able to swing a couple of days off, but I have two urgent trials that I can't leave for long." He tucked his feet under Remus' ankles under the table. "One of them should be finishing up early next week, so maybe we could take next weekend as a long weekend."

Remus nodded. "Sounds good. Any ideas where you'd like to go?"

Severus stood to start clearing the table. Behind him, the insipid morning show started the Local Heroes segment, which was, to Severus' confusion, Remus' favorite. Severus, stacking the dishes in the sink, turned to see Remus leaning forward, glued to the screen. Severus rolled his eyes and turned back to the sink.

"So, our local heroes are back! They've been away - you'll have noticed fewer exciting explosions -"

"It was a relief," Severus said, elbow deep in dish soap. "Sometimes I wish we lived in a place which didn't have a local team of 'super' heroes. I notice that Leeds doesn't have to rebuild all the time." He glanced over his shoulder, but couldn't see Remus' face. "It might be nice, you know, to be able to go out without having to check to see if some alien species has destroyed this or that neighborhood this week."

"… little about where you've been?" On the screen, the blonde news reporter was beaming up into the masked face of Dogstar. He stood, laughing, one arm casually slung over his team-mate's shoulder, while the rest of the team, the Marauders, stood gathered behind them both. "And whether Marvolo was behind it all?"

"Well," he said, his southern accent clear in the kitchen, "old Wolfie and I were chasing after the guys who took out the upper part of Parliament Street." Under his arm, the wolf-man Garoul grinned. It looked only slightly less frightening than a true wolf's snarl, but the women, and a few of the men, in the crowd behind the reporter sighed heavily. 

"And did you get them?" The blonde's voice was slightly breathless. She'd leaned in a little closer; Severus rolled his eyes as she twirled her hair around one of her fingers.

"Can't she control that reaction?" He dropped a cup of tea in front of Remus and sipped from his own. "I mean, I know that werewolves are supposed to be supernaturally attractive - 'part of the curse'," his voice was very dry, "and all that - but if you know it's happening, can't you just, I don't know, not be such a prat in public?"

Garoul had leaned closer to the microphone. "He won't be coming back. We've made sure of that." He licked his chops and leered, making three girls in the crowd squeal. "There were a couple of setbacks, but that's all behind us now." His voice was rough and hoarse.

The reporter blinked at him, eyes very wide. After a second, she shivered and turned back to Dogstar. "Setbacks?"

From behind Dogstar, White Stag leaned in. "Garoul was almost cut in half, and we nearly lost Wormtail. Only some quick thinking by my beautiful wife saved them." He looked down at the woman standing next to him, her copper hair braided into a crown around her head and her face covered by a white and silver cowl that matched his own. "If she hadn't used the LifeLight, they'd both be dead now."

Severus shoved his seat back from the table. "They'll be going on forever. Let's go out and get something good for dinner at the farm shop up near Ripley." He moved to take Remus' tea mug and sucked in his breath. Remus was looking at him, eyes blazing and nearly yellow. Remus reached out and ran his nails gently up Severus' hand, then stood and stepped forward, pressing his chest against Severus'. 

"Let's not," he growled, his voice sliding deeper and going gravelly. "Let's stay in for the day."

Severus felt dizzy and short of breath. He panted slightly and put a hand against Remus' shoulder, trying to remember what he'd been thinking about just a minute before, but all he could concentrate on was the smell around Remus, the way the air felt both thick with desire and too thin to breathe. With a moan, he let his mug fall onto the table and let Remus take control.

* * *

They made it to the farm shop the next day, enjoying the drive up the A61 in the summer sunshine. They parked across the street and ambled down the narrow lane, Severus carrying two cloth bags for their shopping.

"We can go to the Boar's Head after," Remus said, looking back over his shoulder at Severus, who was a few steps behind. "I haven't had a good pasty in weeks."

Severus snorted. "You wouldn't know a good pasty if it poked you in the nose. My mam still hasn't forgiven you for what you said about hers."

"Well, if she hadn't used that awful pre-made mince sauce, it would've been fine," Remus retorted, moving through the crowded farm shop to stand in front of the meat counter. Severus left him there - he'd be all day picking out his meat - and wandered through the shelves, admiring the jellies and local honey. He picked up a couple packets of wild rice and had started to look for dried mushrooms when there was a loud booming sound from outside. The building shook and a jar of tomato sauce shattered on the floor an aisle away. 

Severus held his breath, waiting to see what would happen next. "Remus," he called. When there wasn't any answer, he stepped sideways, carefully staying nearer the shelves with soft bags of grain rather than the ones with glass jars. Remus was at the front door, leaning out and looking out in the direction they'd come down the lane. There was greenish smoke beginning to curl over the tops of the buildings, lit from underneath by a weird orangey light.

"Remus," Severus snapped, "get back in here. Whatever it is, some hero'll deal with it. We're safer inside."

Remus shot a look at him and shook his head. His eyes were very bright and he seemed to be shaking. "No, I want to go see. I'll just go down to the end of the lane." His expression sobered. "You should stay here, though. I need to know you'll - I mean, you're right, you'll be safer in here. Just," he looked around the room. "Just stay away from the glass, all right?" He wrapped his hand gently around the back of Severus' neck and kissed him, then before Severus had a chance to say anything, he'd slipped out the door and was running down the lane. The smoke slid past his running form, and Severus couldn't see him anymore. The last thing he thought he saw was Remus pulling a glowing phone out of somewhere and shouting into it.

He stepped back into the shop and pulled the door closed behind him. The butcher at the meat counter shrugged at him and said, "So, he ordered eight pounds of lamb and two of mince. Did you want anything yourself?"

Two hours later all the crashing from outside the shop had stopped, so Severus stuck his head out the door. The green smoke was gone, replaced by more traditional grey smoke which was quickly dissipating. There was a column of dark grey smoke boiling up from just outside the village. Severus hitched the now-heavy shopping bags over his shoulder and trod carefully down the lane, looking for Remus. As he peered through the smoke, he saw a white figure fly overhead, his arms curved out in front of himself, as if he were gathering up something imaginary. After a moment, Severus saw that he was pushing the smoke away. 

There were knots of people gathered on the street, a small flotilla of emergency vehicles swooping around, rubble everywhere, and several superheroes mingling with the crowd. He couldn't see Remus anywhere. 

"Did you see the way he - "

"… don't think the insurance will cover it. It's the third time this week."

" - why he kept the machines from going down that lane?"

He pulled out his mobile; Remus hadn't called, and Remus' number went straight to voicemail.

"Bugger." Through the shifting crowds Severus caught sight of White Doe. She was kneeling on the ground, holding her hands over someone lying in front of her, the white light of her healing powers glowing from under her hands. She was laughing at something the man next to her was saying; from the color of his costume, it was Wormtail. The figure on the ground moved and she turned back to him, her expression darkening. After another second, Severus could see a long dark tail, which meant the injured team member was the wolfman, Garoul. 

Severus looked away. He'd no interest in pointless superheroes - he wanted to find Remus. Why had he been so desperate to get out and watch, anyway? He knew that Remus liked superheroes, but this was taking that interest to the extreme. It wasn't safe to watch their antics from where one could actually get hurt.

Severus checked his mobile again, but there was still nothing from Remus at all. Growing increasingly irritated, he pushed through the crowd towards where they'd left the car. He made it to the car park and glared at their Vauxhall. It wasn't as bad as it could be - several large chunks of stone had fallen from the Bear's Head Hotel onto the parking area, but only smaller bits had hit their car. The windscreen looked to be a total loss, but he'd bought the extra glass insurance last year, so he thought they'd be okay.

He put their shopping into the car boot and leaned against the side of the car to wait. Sooner or later, his fanboy of a partner would remember he had someone waiting for him. 

Around him, the chaos began to settle out. His thoughts drifted to the odd results he'd been getting in the second stage trial he was overseeing. He closed his eyes against the view of broken stone walls and half-crushed cars. The third set of results were uniformly unexpected: all of the non-placebo subjects had reported distinct loss of mental function. One of them had even voluntarily dropped herself from the study because her husband had become worried. Severus made a mental note to follow up on that. He hadn't read the withdrawal request yet, so he wasn't sure what, exactly, the husband had said. After a moment, he remembered her name – Charity Burbage.

There was another crash and he opened his eyes. Dogstar was up on top of the hotel pushing loose stone and shingle off and White Stag was supposed to be catching it with his kinetic power, but he'd missed a bit and it had hit another car. Above them, Dogstar was laughing so hard he'd had to grab the chimney, but Severus didn't see what was so funny about destroying someone's car. At least White Stag appeared chagrined, but that didn't make the car any less ruined.

Severus tried Remus' mobile again, but it was still going to voicemail. Now he was getting worried. He pushed off the side of the car and walked back to the street. Something seemed a little odd; the lane that the little farm shop was on was undamaged, but behind him everything in the rest of the village showed signs of destruction. The last of the dark smoke from whatever had crashed outside the village was drifting off and the sun was starting to show through again. 

He walked down to the street again and looked up to where he'd seen the Marauders, but they'd gone. Even Garoul was gone, which must mean that White Doe had fixed him. With a sigh of mixed frustration and worry, he went looking for the Rescue Coordination Booth. Maybe Remus was there or they'd seen him somewhere. 

* * *

_SEVERAL MONTHS LATER_

"The generic for disodium peroxygermanium benzoate will be available in six months," the dark haired man at the head of the table continued what had been a two-hour list of upcoming changes and alterations to the final production schedule of the company. He turned to his right. "Will the replacement be ready for shipment on time?"

The man sitting to his right, a slender man with white blond hair kept unfashionably long, checked his notes and casually shoved them aside. "Yes, Mr Riddle," he said. "My department has been tracking the upcoming generic changeovers and we're ahead of schedule on production and shipping. I'm sure you'll be satisfied with the data sheets I've prepared for your review." He handed a file to Mr Riddle, who accepted it with a thin smile.

"I do hope I am, Malfoy," he said, voice as sharp as his smile. "If there's no other business, I suggest we all get back to work. There is a lot yet to do."

The room filled with the sound of people pushing back chairs and gathering their notes and files. Severus picked up the pad of paper he'd brought and stood. He'd no idea at all why he was even in the meeting - he'd only got the invitation on the company intranet the day before. He'd assumed that they'd have questions for him about the failed trials, but no one had even looked at him, let alone addressed him.

"Mr Snape?" 

He turned and saw Mr Riddle's young secretary just at his elbow. He was dark haired and reminded Severus of someone. "Yes," he snapped. He just wanted to get back to his lab - he'd had to leave an interesting test to attend this meeting.

"Mr Riddle would like to meet you." He moved away without waiting to see if Severus was following him - as if it were unthinkable for Severus to not follow him. _Which_ , thought Severus, _it was, if he wanted to keep his job or ever get another in the field._

Severus knew he was simply one of the younger lab scientists, so why Riddle would want to meet him was a mystery. Rosier had seemed very impressed when Severus showed him the invitation. 

The secretary led Severus out of the room through a door in the back wall, along a short corridor, and then into a well-appointed office in the corner of the building. Riddle was seated on a leather couch near one of the wall-to-ceiling windows, reading from a dark blue file. At the secretary's quiet 'hem-hem', he looked up.

"Ah, Mr Snape," he said smoothly, closing the file. There was a looping design on the cover - Severus couldn't quite make out the image. Riddle crossed his legs and leaned back. "Mr Black," he said to the secretary. "We'll be about half an hour. Please bring in tea." The secretary nodded and turned to leave, but Severus put out his hand.

"Black? Are you … do you know a Sirius Black?"

The younger man's eyes flashed. "If you'll excuse me, sir," he said tonelessly, and, stepping around Severus, escaped through yet another door. 

"Mr Snape," Riddle said, gesturing to the leather seat across from himself. "Please, have a seat." As Severus sat down, Riddle continued. "I've heard great things about your work. How are you finding the lab? Is there anything you need? Are there any specific projects you'd like to be involved in?"

Severus blinked. "Thank you, sir." He could hear his mam's voice reminding him to be polite. "The lab is excellent. I very much enjoy the work we do - that I'm doing for you here." His eye fell onto the cover of the file. The image on the cover looked like it was a variant of the caduceus, but there appeared to be a skull in place of the traditional wings at the top of the staff. With a wrench, he pulled his eyes away and met Riddle's gaze. "I find the work very fulfilling."

Black returned then, carrying a tray with several sorts of biscuits, including Severus' favorites, and a large pot of tea. He carefully set the tray down, glanced around the table and picked up the file. Severus saw him leave it on Riddle's desk before he left the room. When he glanced back, Riddle was pouring him a cup of tea.

"You take milk and sugar, correct?" he said.

* * *

"It was just bizarre," Severus said, that evening over dinner. Remus had invited his friends over and they were all sitting in the lounge eating take-away Chinese. James and Lily were curled up together in the love seat and Sirius was sitting on the floor leaning back against the overstuffed chair that Remus was in. Severus sat in the side chair, feeling as always, slightly on the outside. 

He'd met Remus the last term before finishing uni, him with his biochemistry degree and Remus with a double degree in journalism and biological sciences. Remus had met James and Sirius in their first day at uni - they were in the same residence hall and had stepped in when some of the other first years were harrassing him. They'd been inseparable ever since, and while Severus had found falling in love with Remus easier than anything he'd done in his life, finding a place for himself with Remus' friends had been much more difficult. He still wasn't sure of what they thought of him. Lily seemed to like him well enough, but he was convinced that Sirius would rather Remus be with anyone _except_ him.

Remus smiled at him and tipped his beer bottle in his direction. "What was?" he asked.

"Well, after that meeting - which wasn't about anything involving me at all -" he paused at Sirius' muttered, "And why would it be, after all?" Remus kicked Sirius and gestured for Severus to continue. "As I was saying, the meeting was interesting, I guess, from a marketing viewpoint. There was some stuff about generics that seemed odd; I hadn't thought about how early they'd start working on replacing the generics with a new branch…" he trailed off and took a bite of his chicken and pineapple.

"After the meeting, Riddle's secretary had me in for a private meeting." He sat up and looked at Sirius. "The secretary's name is Black - do you have a brother?"

Behind Sirius, James coughed. "Is that where he's got to," he said. "Interesting. I can't remember the name of your firm." Sirius' face had gathered in and his grip on his beer bottle was so tight his knuckles were white.

"I work for Vol de Mort Pharmaceuticals," he said. "You know - we do anti-cancer drugs. Their slogan is 'Flight from Death'." James and Lily exchanged glances. "What? I've been working there for three years - this isn't new. Anyway, that's not the odd part. Riddle didn't even talk to me about the lab much. I mean, I'm not doing anything he'd be interested in - I'm far too many layers down in the development process." He drank the last of his beer. "He spent most of the conversation talking to me about the Marauders. It was peculiar - he knew more about them than anyone I've met. Except for you, of course," he said, looking at Remus, who'd gone a bit stiff.

There was a short scuffle in the love seat - it looked as if Lily'd elbowed James in the ribs. Her face was pale, but she was grinning. "I'll just clear some of this away. Does anyone want anything from the kitchen?" She stood up and started gathering up the dishes strewn around the room. Severus started to help, but she waved him back. "Don't worry about it. These ruffians leave messes everywhere and you've been on your feet all day."

When she came back from the kitchen, she sat down on the loveseat and stretched her legs out over James'. "This feels amazing," she said, stretching her arms over her head. "It's been an exhausting week. We've had more Death Eaters this week in the A&E than we've seen in the past month. I wish the police could get it off the streets. It's worse than heroin." She lifted her red hair off her neck and twisted it expertly into a knot.

"Death Eaters?" Severus knew he was often out of touch with the news, but usually he had at least some idea of what was going on. 

"It's a new drug," Lily said, shifting to look at him. "It's horrifying. Patients come in - it's almost as if they're zombies. They can barely walk on their own and I've never seen any of them quite come out from under the influence of it. The drug permanently damages part of their brain." She shuddered. "They say it feels like they're floating, like every single worry or anxiety they've ever had have been washed away. Which might be nice, if, you know, it was temporary, but it's not. They never get back to normal."

Severus stared at her, feeling the back of his neck go cold. "How much do they need to take before its effects are permanent? And how long has it been available? I mean, how long have you been seeing these people in A&E?"

She looked at him oddly. "I don't actually know - it's injected, but I don't know what the dosages are. I just see the aftermath." She thought for a second. "I haven't seen anyone come in with it more than four or five times. And it's new. There were a few cases of it a couple months ago, but now it's more than half the drugs overdose cases." 

Sirius, still looking thunderous, coughed. "Worm - Peter might know. I can get him to check, if you want."

Severus shook his head. "Thank you, but no. It can't be what I was thinking of, anyway." He finished his beer. "Sometimes I see my work in everything, even if it doesn't make sense."

"The woman who died today – she'd been in three times before. This time we just couldn't save her." Lily's voice was flat. "It was awful. Her husband was raving about some cancer drugs, but she didn't _have_ cancer."

Severus sat up slowly. "Cancer drugs? What was her name?"

Lily paused, thinking. "It was an old-fashioned name. A virtue, or something." She rubbed her eyes. "Right. Charity. Charity Burbage."

* * *

_THREE WEEKS LATER_

Severus closed the book he was reading and stared out the kitchen window at the night sky. Remus had messaged him to say that he wouldn't be able to get home today, even though they'd made plans to go out to dinner to celebrate their anniversary. He hated feeling like this - Remus' job took him to distant interesting places and he'd known that when Remus had taken the job. He hadn't quite anticipated how much time Remus would be away and how long and dreary the time would be when he was gone.

He also hadn't realised that Remus' job would put him in danger quite so much of the time. It bothered Severus when Remus came home with injuries. He was a journalist - he shouldn't be getting hurt quite as often as he seemed to be. Surely the motto was: "Report on the news, don't make it."

With a shrug, he set his teacup in the sink and started to get ready for bed. Remus had said he'd be home tomorrow, so at least this time the delay wouldn't be too long. 

Wearing his favorite pair of soft sleep pants, Severus crawled into bed, arranged the blankets and pillows into a comfortable nest-like shape and tried to relax. Just as he was drifting off to sleep, he heard someone at the front door. He flipped over, listening closely. Was Remus getting home earlier than he'd thought? Something about the sounds were wrong; they didn't sound like Remus' footsteps at all.

"Remus," he called. "Is that you?" There wasn't any sound from the lounge, so he slipped out of bed and pulled on his dressing gown, cursing internally at the lack of anything with which to defend himself. He'd always scoffed at people who kept golf clubs in their bedrooms, but just now he wished he had something similar.

He slipped through the bedroom door, then down the corridor towards where he'd heard the noises. Things looked okay in the moonlight filtering in through the half-closed curtains, but … there was a sudden sharp sound behind him and he spun around. 

A large dark shape loomed up at him and he jumped backwards, shouting, "Hey, get out of my fucking flat!" Unfortunately, the backwards jump landed him directly into the arms of another stranger, who wrapped his arms tightly around his chest. He struggled, still shouting, but the first assailant grabbed his flailing arms and brought his wrists together, wrapping something sharp and plastic around them. Just as he thought he might be able to pull away from the one holding him, the one in front of him pressed a thick cloth against his face. 

His last thought before the moonlit room swirled away to darkness was worry about Remus. What if these men grabbed him as well?

* * *

He woke up slowly, his body cramped and his head pounding. He groaned and tried to rub his eyes, but nearly pulled his shoulder out of its socket when his hand didn't move. He opened his eyes, then winced and closed them again. It was so bright here. Everywhere he looked was reflective. After a minute, he tried opened his eyes just a little, but it didn't help much. The wall directly opposite him was shiny silver, clearly reflecting everything in the room.

He was strapped into a large metal chair made of nothing but snakes. Some of them were dark green and others were a silver similar to that of the wall opposite him. He couldn't see where the light was coming from, but now that he was a little more coherent, he could look more closely around himself. The side walls were striped different shades of green with the same silver as the first wall, but the back wall appeared to be covered with a larger-than-life-size bas relief of a man surrounded by giant snakes. He shook his head, wondering what drug they'd used on him to knock him out and whether or not it had any hallucinogenic side effects.

The chair was on a low dais surrounded by a shallow moat, which appeared to be … writhing. He blinked and shook his head, looking again. No, it wasn't writhing. Or, it was, but really, it was filled with snakes; some were dark green, others were shiny black, and some were an odd greenish brown. The moat was just barely too deep for them to get out, but far too wide for anyone to safely jump. 

"Hello?" he called. "Whoever you are, I don't know why you've kidnapped me. If you just let me go, I won't tell anyone about this." His shoulders were beginning to ache from his position in the chair. He tried to turn around to see behind himself, but couldn't see past the sides of the chair. He looked closely at the reflective wall, but couldn't see anyone else in the room.

With a sigh, he leaned back again. This was ridiculous. Why would anyone kidnap him and bring him to some bizarre room set up for snake worship? 

The sound of hissing laughter filled the room and he saw, in the reflection, the mouth of one of the snakes slide open. A tall man walked into the room, wearing a long dark cloak like something Americans wore when they dressed up as a witch for Halloween. He moved through the room, still laughing gently. As he came closer, Severus could see that he had a sword with a silver coloured hilt belted around his robes. The hilt appeared to be the head of a snake; the giant emerald at the end of the pommel was clenched in the snake's fangs.

"Oh my dear boy," he said, somehow sounding as if he were hissing every word even though nothing he'd said had the letter 's' in it. "You have no idea, do you?" He came closer and just as Severus thought he'd have to stop at the other side of the moat, he did hiss something and the snakes made a solid path for him to walk on. 

Severus watched as the strange man walked around the chair, finally halting directly in front of him. He stroked Severus' hair away from his eyes and Severus pulled away from his hand. "Don't be like that," the stranger said, voice low and caressing. "I've been waiting so long to meet you. Surely I can have a little time to get to know you better." 

His face was oddly distorted. He wasn't wearing a mask, but his face wasn't human. It almost looked like he'd tried to become a snake - his eyes were a dark burning red, with slitted pupils, his skin was pale and pasty, with just a hint of scales, and his nose… Severus squeezed his eyes closed for a moment. His nose was gone, or had never been there, or something. There was the hint of a human nasal ridge, but then there were just slits where the rest of the nose should be. His mouth was the most frightening part of his face, though; he had fully human lips, bright red and glossy, with brilliantly white teeth and two long fangs in place of his canines.

"Who are you," Severus asked, sure he wouldn't like the answer.

"My name is Marvolo," the stranger said, still hissing. "You must have heard all about me. I'm sure I'm often the topic of your dinner-time conversations."

Severus stared at him. _Heard about him?_ "I'm sorry. I think you have me confused with someone else. I've only heard of you on the news reports. I'm afraid I don't have time to follow the superhero news much." 

Marvolo recoiled. "Superheroes?" His eyes began to glow and his lips pulled back, exposing his fangs. "I am _not_ just some garden variety villain to be dismissed as nothing important. Those 'super' heroes you all worship are nothing, _nothing_ in the face of my brilliance and expertise. All they are is cheap entertainers, spending most of their time posing for cameras and developing lines of cologne." 

He began to pace back and forth, gesturing at the room around them. "Do they have an understanding of true beauty? Do they perceive their connection to the life force of the defenceless animals around them?" He whirled to face Severus. "Well? Do they?"

Severus blinked, taken aback. "Erm," he began.

" _Of course they don't!!_ " Marvolo bellowed, the effect a little ruined by the way his fangs made everything he said sound a little slurred. "They don't have any connection to anything other than themselves." He paused in his pacing and stared at Severus, who suddenly remembered his situation. 

"Except he _does_ have a connection to you, doesn't he?" Marvolo moved back to stand in front of Severus and stroked his cheek with two fingers. His long fingernails scraped Severus' jaw, making him shiver fiercely. 

"Look, Marvolo," Severus said, feeling desperate, "I have no idea who you think I am and which super… I mean, who you think might be connected to me, but I'm really sure you have the wrong person. I don't know any, erm, any of those people." He tried to look earnest. "I don't think I'd want to, in fact. I agree with you that they're often self-aggrandising and self-important. I'm just a biological chemist. I'm really not the person you're looking for."

To his dismay, Marvolo started laughing and Severus realised that the previous laughter had been, in comparison, friendly. This was a full belly laugh, but the evil angry overtones filled him with creeping horror. Marvolo slid his hand around the back of Severus' neck and squeezed gently. His long thumbnail pressed into Severus' jugular and the tips of his fingernails pushed into the other. He kept squeezing, and for one dreadful moment Severus thought he was about to have his head broken off by some crazed madman who had him confused with some other stupid superhero's boyfriend. 

Then Marvolo slipped his hand up into Severus' hair, grabbing a fistful of it at the nape of his neck and using it to bend Severus' head back. He brought his nauseating face close to Severus' ear. "Your pathetic boyfriend and his equally idiotic 'team' will come, never you fret. I'll deal with them." He spun away from Severus, his arms outstretched.

"And then," he cried out, loudly enough for his voice to echo off the far walls, "and then I'll be free to take my rightful place among the Great. I will allow my beloveds -" he paused and bent to stroke one of the larger brown snakes which had, by dint of climbing on top of all the other snakes in its section of the moat, slithered onto the dais. "Hello, beautiful," Marvolo crooned, picking it up and wrapping its heavy coils around his shoulder and down one arm. 

"You see," he said, bringing the snake up to Severus. "This is a Death Adder. It's extremely venomous, and it can't wait to meet your 'boyfriend'." He stretched the word out into a singsong which reminded Severus of a teenaged girl; he bit his lips, desperate not to let the sudden laugh rising in his throat escape his mouth. By the time he'd brought his attention back to Marvolo, he'd wrapped the snake around his own neck and was swaying back and forth with it, holding its head near his and pressing his thumb against the roof of its open mouth, dripping its venom into his mouth.

Severus pressed his eyes closed. This couldn't be happening. Not to him. He was just a chemist, for fuck's sake. He didn't have any interest in superheroes, let alone a personal connection to any of them. He sighed, trying to think of anything he could say which might make Marvolo let him go. 

There was a distant thunderous crash and the shiny silver wall fractured as if it were made of tempered safety glass. Marvolo spun around, his eyes literally glowing red now and his own fangs dripping slightly. He hissed something and the snakes in the pit all turned to face the wall.

There were two more crashes and the centre of the wall fell in, the fragments hitting the metal floor and ringing like bells. White Stag and White Doe flew through the gaping hole and hovered just inside the room. 

"He's here," one of them shouted, and Dogstar ran between them, shooting Starlight balls from the palms of his hands. "I've got Marvolo," he yelled, then slipped on the body of a snake which had slithered along the floor to meet him. He staggered and fell, still shooting fireballs. One singed past White Doe, making her dodge and bounce in the air.

"Watch it," she called. Dogstar grinned up at her and rolled onto his stomach, sending two more fireballs at Marvolo. 

"You just don't like it when your hair gets burnt," he replied. 

"DESIST!" bellowed Marvolo, holding his arms out to his sides. He stood near Severus, holding the Death Adder in one hand and pinning Severus' head by the back of his neck with the other. "You can not defeat me now - I have …" he broke off. "You appear to be missing someone," he said, his voice a mixture of amused and perplexed. 

The sound of shattering stone came just seconds before a cloud of thick stone dust boiled across the dais.

"Someone is missing?" The voice was high and slightly squeaky, and Severus, coughing in the dusty air, couldn't identify it. "I beg to differ. We just chose a different route." 

Severus felt Marvolo's hand tighten on his neck and he tried to pull away from him. Suddenly, the hand, and the man himself were yanked away, and the change in pressure on his neck made Severus start coughing. The dust was in his lungs and mouth and he could barely breathe. 

"Don't worry," a dark gravelly voice said, just in front of his face. "I'll get you … _we'll_ get you out of here, no harm done." Severus felt hands on his face, stroking his hair back. Then he could feel the hands tugging at the ties wrapped around his wrist. The voice continued, sounding tense. "You aren't harmed, are you? That vicious bastard didn't touch you, did he? Because if he did…" 

Something about the voice sounded familiar, but Severus couldn't put his finger on what. He tried to open his eyes, but couldn't do much more than pry them open a sliver. Garoul was kneeling in front of him, hands busy on the bindings. His eyes, however, were locked on Severus' face.

Severus blinked, trying to clear the stone dust from his eyes. His hands fell forward and he moaned - the sudden shift in his shoulders was surprisingly painful. The wolf-man reached up and gently ran his thumbs under Severus' streaming eyes, wiping away the dust. Behind him, the voices of White Stag and Dogstar merged with that of Marvolo as they traded insults and attacks, but here, for one heartstopping, impossibly long moment, all Severus could do was stare into Garoul's eyes. They looked so worried, so desperate.

"Hey loverboy, get him out of here!" Wormtail skittered up to Garoul, his tail wrapped around several large blocks of stone. He was disheveled and dirty and grinning hugely. "Dog's got Marvolo all twisted up right now, and Doe's threatening to hurt his poor little snakies…" He laughed and Garoul laughed with him, but something about the look in the rat-man's eyes made Severus think of Marvolo's expressions when he had been ranting about the evils that superheroes did.

"I'll just see Sev - this guy out of here, and then I'll come and help you clean up. Be right back," he said to Wormtail, then, turning to Severus, he said, "Don't try to stand yet. You've been sitting for long enough for your legs to be too stiff to use." He paused. "In fact, why don't I just carry you." He stood, rolled his shoulders, and bent, slipping one large, furry arm under Severus' knees and the other around his shoulders. "Just lean into me," he said, his low voice directly in Severus' ear.

Severus wrapped his arms around Garoul's neck, feeling distinctly odd. None of this situation made sense. He wasn't the boyfriend of some superhero, no matter what Marvolo said. He had no idea why the Marauders would come to rescue him, and he wondered if this was even the group that Marvolo had thought _would_ rescue him. He hadn't been too clear on that point. _Or on any point, really_ , Severus thought. 

What felt most peculiar about this was, however, that he could swear Garoul felt … familiar. He knew that Remus watched them on the news all the time, and he and his friends talked about them - as well as the other heroes, but this felt more as if he _knew_ Garoul personally rather than the sort of recognition that comes from seeing a celebrity in person. 

Garoul took off running, holding Severus close against his chest. Severus was surprised at how little he bounced - the wolf-man was incredibly strong. They bounded across the dais, crossed the wide moat in one long leap, then made it to the back of the room in two more strides. 

"This is a bit tight," Garoul said, and slipped them between two large boulders - Severus could see part of a snake's eye and mouth on one of the rocks and the chipped off fangs on another. Then they were through the gap and Garoul was running down a long corridor. The walls were the same dark green as in the snake room. They ran through several laboratories and one room filled with, confusingly, fish-tanks.

Severus' legs started tingling fiercely and he groaned. "Wait, can you stop for a minute?" 

Garoul skidded to a halt in a large white laboratory. "Are you okay? Were you injured?" He set Severus down on one of the work benches and began running his hands - paws? - over Severus' body. As he rubbed Severus' legs, Severus twitched and groaned again.

"No," he said, "my legs have just woken up and it's excruciating. It'll pass." He slid off the table, landing very unsteadily, and stretched his legs a little. "Okay, it's going off now." He walked around the room a little, looking at the machines and experimental detritus. "What is that crazy man doing here?" He pointed to a bank of machines along one wall. "Those are genetic sequencers - and this is a splicer."

"I don't know what he's doing," he said, "and I'm not sure that I really care. He and the others have a real grudge against each other - especially Dogstar. White Stag is willing to fight with Marvolo just because Dogstar doesn't like him, and yeah, he's entirely off his head about many things, but I wonder if he doesn't have a little bit of a point about the way animals are treated. Animals do come in for some pretty amazing abuse in this world." He leaned against a door labelled 'Unauthorised Entrants Will Be Incinerated. This Means YOU!!'. "Maybe I see it more because I'm, you know," he nodded down at his body. "Almost an animal myself."

Severus caught himself opening his mouth to refute this, then paused. He'd been about to say, "You're not an animal," but it had suddenly occurred to him that he'd forgotten the part of the werewolf curse that made them irresistible. He'd been so sure that he wouldn't fall for that, that _he_ would be the one person who wasn't susceptible to whatever pheromones or magic aura was responsible for the human response to werewolves, but here he was, as anxious as any of the other fans to make a connection.

There was a series of loud booms and Garoul trotted back to the door. "It looks like they're coming this way. Can you get moving yet?"

Severus glanced over. "I think so. There's something over here I wanted to look at." He started to walk across the room, limping slighly as his legs finished waking up. 

"There isn't much time," Garoul said, turning to watch him. Before he finished turning, the corridor walls outside crashed in, sending another gout of plaster dust and debris into the room. 

"Severus!" yelled Garoul, but Severus was already ducking, hiding behind the tall work desks in the corner he'd been walking towards. The last he saw of Garoul, he was looking back over his shoulder at him, eyes desperate and arms outstretched. 

Then everything was chaos. He could hear shouts – Dogstar seemed to have taken particular offence at something Marvolo had said whilst they were chasing him through the labs and White Stag could barely stop laughing at Dogstar's furious ranting long enough to use his kinetic powers. Severus tried peering around the corner at the fight, but mostly all he could see through the dust of destruction was flashes of light and the occasional bit of bouncing wall or ceiling. He figured he was lucky that the combatants didn't seem to be interested in tearing up the floors as well.

As he sat, tucked most of the way under a desk, he saw a familiar looking glass vial on the work desk just opposite his hiding place. He crawled forward, keeping the tables between himself and everything else until he'd made it around to the desk he wanted. Carefully, he lifted into a crouch, trying to stay as low as possible.

He'd been right. The vial on the desk was one from his office. It might even be one from his own lab room. Skin prickling, he dropped it into the pocket of his dressing gown. How the hell had this got here? He glared around, trying to see if he could spot anything else from his lab, or anything that might indicate how private, supposedly secured biological samples had ended up here. He was furious – this was a serious breach of security. He'd have to look up what this vial was when he got back to work on Monday. Assuming he would be able to go to work on Monday.

He looked up at the fight. Things seemed to have settled down a bit. Marvolo was still throwing glass globes filled with snake venom at the Marauders, but he appeared to be running out of ammunition and was throwing them less extravagantly than he had been. 

Severus looked back down at the desk. There were several files on it, most labelled in an odd curly script he couldn't read. If he looked at the writing too hard, it almost looked as if it were crawling on the page. He rubbed his eyes and shoved those aside. At the bottom of the stack, he saw a file with a dark jacket. He slid it out from under the rest.

It was dark blue, with a drawing on the cover. It looked... he ran his fingers over it, thoughtfully. It looked a lot like the odd variation of the caduceus which had been on the cover of the file in Mr Riddle's office. It must have been stolen from there, like the glass vial. This meant that the security breach was much worse than he'd thought. Stealing things from a lab was one thing, but this had been stolen from the Director's office. 

He was about to open the folder, when there was a shout and he looked up. Garoul and Marvolo were standing near where he'd taken cover, wrestling with each other. Marvolo had one hand on his sword and the other clutching a venom globe. Garoul was dripping with some liquid – Severus hoped whatever he'd gotten into couldn't get through Garoul's super-suit and fur – and Marvolo had several large scratches down his face. As Severus watched, Garoul twisted Marvolo around and pulled the hand with the poison globe up behind his back. 

"Just for that, you perversion of nature," Marvolo screamed, "I'll make sure your boyfriend doesn't see another sunrise!" He spun around, out of Garoul's grip, and threw his silver sword across the room. It arced through the air, moving impossibly fast, the emerald in the hilt flashing and gleaming in the light. 

Severus didn't have time to dodge out of the way; by the time he'd thought to just drop to the floor, Garoul had jumped from where he'd been standing with Marvolo. He crashed into Severus just as Severus started to let himself fall to the floor, making both of them hit the floor hard and slide into another desk.

Severus panted for a few seconds, then lifted his head. The sword was buried in Garoul's back, high on the left side. Severus tried to shift from under Garoul's heavy body, to see how bad the damage was. "Hey," he said, shoving at Garoul's uninjured shoulder. "Garoul, are you..." He couldn't bring himself to ask if the wolf-man was 'okay'; he had a bloody sword through his back. Of course he wasn't okay.

In the distance, he could hear sounds – people shouting and someone was yelling something about 'tearing you apart limb from limb', but all Severus could focus on was the thin rasp of Garoul's breathing. He tried to lift him up gently, hoping to turn Garoul a little so that he could see his face. Garoul turned to look at him.

"Are you alright?" he asked. He stretched his right arm up and stroked Severus' face. "He didn't hurt you?" 

Severus stared down at him, aghast. "Am _I_... You _pillock!_ You have a ruddy great sword stuck through your body and you're asking if _I'm_ alright?"

To his surprise, Garoul laughed. "There's the man I love," he said. His face wavered slightly, the wolf features fading away for a second or two. The face revealed was pinched and pale and … and Severus sucked in his breath. It was _Remus_. His face faded back into the wolf's, his eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped down, unconscious.

Then suddenly there were crowds of people around them. There were several Police Officers squatting down next to them and White Doe crouched down on the other side of Garoul, holding one hand over the place where the sword had pierced his back. She glanced across at Severus.

"I've got him," she said.

Severus gripped Remus harder, staring at her. Now that he was actually paying close attention, he could see who she was under the mask. " _Lily?_ " he whispered

She shook her head slightly, still trying to get him to release Remus. She looked over at the police and nodded at Severus. "I'll need to have some privacy with my team-mate," she said.

The policemen tapped Severus on the shoulder. "Sir, you'll have to come with us. We have some questions, and you'll need to see a doctor." Severus tried to hold onto Remus, but they pulled his hands away and dragged him from under Remus and to his feet. He twisted in their arms, trying to get back to Remus – _his Remus_ , who was dying there on the floor and they wouldn't let him get close...

* * *

Severus sat in the kitchen, the vial from his lab and the dark blue file from Marvolo's compound on the table in front of him. He was staring at the little telly, waiting for the damned Local Heroes news report to come on. Remus hadn't come home, he wasn't answering his mobile, Lily's hospital wouldn't say whether or not she was on the schedule, and he didn't _know_ Potter's mobile number. This left only Black, and Severus was waiting for the news report before he humiliated himself by asking his lover's best friend, who hated him, if his lover was alive.

"And now it's time for today's Local Heroes!" The bright eyed blonde looked earnestly into the camera. "We've heard some worrying news from White Stag. It seems that Marvolo kidnapped someone a couple nights ago," 

" _Last night_ , you imbecilic ninny," interrupted Severus.

"injured in the rescue." She paused. The screen behind her showed the chaotic scene at the compound after the police and everyone else had arrived. As Severus watched, the camera panned over the crowd; he'd been too distracted at the time to see how many random strangers – fans of the team, he assumed now – showed up to watch. Luckily enough, the cameras hadn't caught him, sitting wrapped in a blanket on the back bumper of an emergency vehicle, ranting at the paramedic about the fact that he should be able to be close to Garoul because they were a couple. He'd stopped talking when the paramedic said, in a bored tone, "That's what they all say."

"All?" he'd asked, trying to keep his voice calm.

The paramedic laughed a little. "Yeah, it's a thing. I know you guys follow the team, but seriously, they wouldn't have time to do their jobs if they were dating everyone who said they were boyfriends or girlfriends with a superhero." He started putting away his tools, and Severus had heard him mutter under his breath, "Crazy fucking fanboys."

He was just happy now, in his bright kitchen, that _that_ particularly embarrassing exchange hadn't been filmed. 

The blonde was back, her vapid face attempting to look serious. "We have updates from White Doe about Garoul's condition. It appears that things are still touch and go – he was badly injured and she doesn't know if her powers will be enough to heal him." She consulted her notes. "They're thinking about taking him to see a specialist in America. In other bad news, Marvolo has escaped from police custody and is still at large."

Severus pressed the off button on the remote. "So, that's it, then. I'm not to know anything?" He dialled Black's number and waited. 

"Thank you for calling Sirius Black Film Agency. Leave a message with your contact details and I'll get right back to you."

"It's Severus. I know what's going on, that you're Dogstar and that Garoul's Remus and all the rest of it. I want to talk to Remus."

Three hours later, he still hadn't got a response. He'd left several more messages, with increasing levels of fury, on Black's phone. He'd spent the time when he wasn't trying to think of a way to get more information about Remus going through the file which had been stolen from Mr Riddle's office and that he'd taken from Marvolo's lab.

It was clear from what was in the file that Marvolo had a spy high up in Vol de Mort Pharmaceuticals. Severus wondered if it weren't Black's brother. He was certainly in a position to get anything he needed, and the way Potter and Black had reacted made it look as if he wasn't someone they wanted to know.

The vial was certainly from his lab. The group number on the top looked familiar, so he checked the files he kept on his laptop. His finger slid down the list of solutions he'd tried. TS:883 was on the list, but he had it as a failed, and destroyed, sample. He stared at the empty vial and wondered how it had got from his lab to Marvolo's. None of this made sense. What would Marvolo want with the anti-cancer drugs, anyway?

Feeling disgusted and desperate, he shut his laptop, grabbed the file and vial and left the flat. He could figure out more at the labs. In the car, he tried Black's phone again, but this time got a message saying that Black's voicemail was full and could he try back later? He snarled and threw the phone to the bottom of the footwell of the passenger side of the car.

In his lab,after locking the door behind himself, he looked up the notes for TS:883. It had been a failed series, but it hadn't even made it to trials. How had it got out of the lab? The only people who could get in here were him and Evan. Someone walked by in the hall; he saw their shadow move past his door. He swept the vial and folder under the storage shelf at the back of his desk and tried to think of what he'd say if whoever it was asked why he was in at the weekend.

The door opened and Sirius Black walked in. "Well, come on then," he said. "You've been leaving messages on my ansaphone on the half-hour." He crossed his arms and stared at Severus, raising one eyebrow. "Or are you too much a coward to come and face Remus in person?"

Severus crossed his own arms. "And how do I know you'll really take me to him?"

Black rolled his eyes. "The prat's refusing to go to the States without you. I can't let him die because he likes a wanker like you."

Severus gathered up the file and jar, but he stopped and looked seriously at Black. "He's really dying?"

"He will if you don't hurry up so we can get him to the guy at Xavier's school. That was a silver sword, you idiot."

Severus was at the door before Black finished talking. "You can tell me anything else in the car."

Behind him, Black laughed. "Who said anything about driving?"

* * *

They landed on the tarmac at Dishforth and Severus charged out of the helicopter towards the sleek plane across the runway. He could hear Black talking to someone behind him; nothing else mattered but getting to that plane and finding Remus. He'd figure out what to do after that once he got there. He couldn't decide between smacking the man for lying to him for so long or just holding on for dear life.

At the top of the stairs, he stopped. He'd been expecting what he'd always seen – a long corridor down the centre of the plane with seats to either side, but this was like a series of large open rooms. At the sound of his entry, Lily poked her head out of a door to a closed room near the tail of the plane. "Down here, Severus," she called. "He's waiting for you." She turned to look into the room and he couldn't catch what she'd said, but when she looked back at him, she was smiling.

"Is he..." he paused outside the room, suddenly afraid to go in. 

Her face gentled. "He'll be fine. Just, I can't heal the damage because the silver in the sword has blocked my LifeLight from getting to his cells. The man we're taking him to, Elixir, he'll be able to fix it all." She looked into his eyes for a long minute. "You'll do, Severus. It'll be okay." She stepped aside and drew him into the room.

Remus was lying on the bed, half covered by a thin blanket, bandages stark white against his brown fur. He appeared stuck halfway between human and wolf, but Severus could see that he was alive and breathing and he thought they could work out anything else as they went. The look of joy on Remus' face as he approached the bed made everything worthwhile.

* * *

Later, they lay in bed, legs tangled together, Remus' hand resting on the center of Severus' chest. "I'm sorry I never told you," Remus said. "At first I didn't know if we were going to stay together, and then the others wanted to put the team together and we weren't supposed to tell anyone and then it had been years and you thought I was just a journalist and it got harder and harder to leave you and harder and harder to tell you and …" He trailed off and shifted so he was lying on his side, facing Severus. "You deserved to know, from the very beginning."

Severus ran a hand over the sword scar on Remus' chest. "Just don't lie to me any more. About anything." 

Remus covered Severus' hand with his own. "Only the truth from now on."

_fin_


End file.
